Art Promotion Online for Pencil Portrait Artists
With the Internet, there's a world of opportunity for artists to show what they do best!
But where and how can you promote your art without spending a lot of money at membership sites? The good news is that you don't have to pay a lot of money to see results. What you do need to do is devote time to promoting your art online. Keep in mind that the time doesn't have to be in huge blocks of time. If you can get online a couple times a day for ten minutes each time, you will probably be able to do some self promotion if you stay focused.
I hope this page will help you find places to post your art and be a guerrilla self promoter!
If you mainly want to do your art but hate marketing and self promotion, just give it a try. Do a little bit each day. When you get your info and art on the internet, it can be "working" for you while you are back creating your art! So think of it as an investment toward your future.
Here are some ideas on how to promote your art business online.
*NOTE* Please add this page to your favorites, as I will be updating it and adding more to it.
Free Art Supply Catalog!
Select from several different catalogs from Blick Art Supply. Completely free for artists!
- Dick Blick Free Catalogs
- Selection of art supply catalogues free from Blick Art Materials
Free Online Art Portfolio Websites
These are free at the basic level, and generally are pretty easy to upload your art into. Some do charge if you want to enhance your membership for additional website benefits.
- Fine Art America - Fine Art Prints - Fine Art Originals - Fine Art Marketplace
- Fine Art America is the premier online marketplace for browsing and purchasing fine art originals and fine art prints. Its also the easiest way to stay in touch with your local art scene! Our interactive website is designed to bring together fine artists, fine art galleries, and fine art collectors
- ArtWanted.com
- Artwanted - free to upload 3 images per month, or upgrade to paid membership for more features.
- Coroflot
- Free art portfolio online
Free Websites
Sometimes, you do get what you pay for. Free websites are great for the beginning artist, but as you move along in your business, you will probably want to upgrade to more professional sites in order to get the best ranking in the search engines that you can.
A downside of a lot of the free website places is that the ads are often content-related, meaning that if your site is about pencil portraits, then the ads on the site may direct your site visitors to other pencil portrait artists. If you are uncomfortable with competition, this is not the way to go.
A downside of a lot of the free website places is that the ads are often content-related, meaning that if your site is about pencil portraits, then the ads on the site may direct your site visitors to other pencil portrait artists. If you are uncomfortable with competition, this is not the way to go.
- FreeWebs.com
- FreeWebs is free and supported by advertising.
- Tripod
- Tripod has websites that are free at the basic level and the site is advertiser supported.
- Google Pages
- Free website builder from Google. Currently there is no advertising on the site! This may be a little more difficult to figure out for a person new at building websites, however.
- SiteKreator.com - Professional web site creation solution. -Home
- SiteKreator provides a one-stop solution for creating captivating Web sites without any technical or artistic expertise necessary. With a full set of elegant designs, versatile branding options and interactive features, you can instantly design, build and publish a professional website
Books on Promoting Yourself and your Art
Good Things To Add To Your Art Website
Nice add-ons to your website, blog, or even your artist MySpace page.
- Site Meter - Counter and Statistics Tracker
- Free website counter at basic level. This will tell you how people got to your site and upon closer inspection, you will be able to find out what search terms they used to find your art website. Keep in mind, you can use this on your website, your myspace page, or even your blog. Create a new account for each site you wish to place the meter on.
Blogging
Your Art Blog
Ordering a portrait is a personal-relationship to many clients. A blog lets them know you more as a person, and when they know you as a person, it's less scary to communicate with you by email or phone, and to send pictures of their children to you for a portrait.
Here are some places you can get started blogging:
Typepad: Get A Professional Looking Blog Today!
Get Paid to Blog About the Things You Love!
There are many more, just search Google for 'blog' and you will be amazed at the choices!
Some experts believe that your blog should NOT be on Blogspot, and that it will hurt your overall Google ranking because it's a free blog site. This could be true, but I believe that Blogspot is a great place to have your blog, because it is a Google product.
Google of course will promote its own stuff over other websites, so I have found that to have a higher ranking, using Blogspot is an easy way to do it!
However, I have read some experts say that the free Blogspot or Google blog is not the way to go. It's often hard to know what to do sometimes. I think a key to it is to find one that you like and you know you can work with it. If you don't like it or find it very difficult, then you are not going to blog regularly, so the point is moot.
Establish Yourself as an Expert Online
Share your knowledge
Write 'how-to' articles and publish them in: your blog, a Squidoo page like this one, and AssociatedContent.com
You can actually make money for your articles at these sites. Want more ways you can make money as an artist? Check out Earning Affiliate Income for Artists. It's a totally free way to monetize your website or art blog, but there will be some work and learning involved on your part.
You can actually make money for your articles at these sites. Want more ways you can make money as an artist? Check out Earning Affiliate Income for Artists. It's a totally free way to monetize your website or art blog, but there will be some work and learning involved on your part.
Make Your Own Squidoo Pages
- Make a Squidoo Page
- You can create a page like this yourself on whatever subjects you choose! Make money or have your page's earnings go toward your favorite charity.
Google AdWords Advertising
Pay Per Click Ads for your Pencil Portrait Business
GOOGLE ADWORDS
https://adwords.google.com/
is an advertising option that can be inexpensive, or very expensive, depending on what you do.
Google adwords is keyword pay-per-click advertising. It's nice because you can set your advertising budget, and it puts your website link on pages where it relates to the topic. It is also nice that you can target certain geographic areas, or you can make your link go directly to a certain page you especially want to promote...it doesn't have to lead the click to your main website page.
But, the downside is that the clicks are often made by other artists, not so much by potential customers. The costs can really add up with a little here and a little there. It's not to cost you money, but artists just love looking at other artist's work, don't we? But sometimes competitors may repeatedly click on your link, causing you loss of advertising money. A click is a click, and that's what you got and therefore you must pay for the click.
https://adwords.google.com/
is an advertising option that can be inexpensive, or very expensive, depending on what you do.
Google adwords is keyword pay-per-click advertising. It's nice because you can set your advertising budget, and it puts your website link on pages where it relates to the topic. It is also nice that you can target certain geographic areas, or you can make your link go directly to a certain page you especially want to promote...it doesn't have to lead the click to your main website page.
But, the downside is that the clicks are often made by other artists, not so much by potential customers. The costs can really add up with a little here and a little there. It's not to cost you money, but artists just love looking at other artist's work, don't we? But sometimes competitors may repeatedly click on your link, causing you loss of advertising money. A click is a click, and that's what you got and therefore you must pay for the click.
Online Forums & Networking
There is nothing better to an artist than to be around other artists, but I advise that you only join artist groups in moderation.
It's great to network, but you don't only want to spend you time online or offline with artists - you need to spend time where potential clients are.
Moms Groups (if you are a mom, that is!), Playgroups, and church groups are great places to get to know people in your local area. Online there are business networking sites like Ryze.com. Social networking groups and sites like MySpace, Ning.com and Facebook are also great places to meet people and show your art online.
A new networking site just for artists, galleries, and agents has opened. Called ArtScuttlebutt.com, it allows you to create a page that is much like a MySpace page. The site has Forums and Groups to discuss any type of art creation or art business question.
It's great to network, but you don't only want to spend you time online or offline with artists - you need to spend time where potential clients are.
Moms Groups (if you are a mom, that is!), Playgroups, and church groups are great places to get to know people in your local area. Online there are business networking sites like Ryze.com. Social networking groups and sites like MySpace, Ning.com and Facebook are also great places to meet people and show your art online.
A new networking site just for artists, galleries, and agents has opened. Called ArtScuttlebutt.com, it allows you to create a page that is much like a MySpace page. The site has Forums and Groups to discuss any type of art creation or art business question.
About This Information
Copyright 2007-2008 Darla Dixon
All rights reserved. No part of this page's text may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without express written permission from the publisher, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Disclaimer:
Every effort has been made to make this page as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warrant of fitness is implied. The information is provided on an 'as-is' basis. The author and publisher will have neither liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage arising from information contained on this page.
All rights reserved. No part of this page's text may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without express written permission from the publisher, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Disclaimer:
Every effort has been made to make this page as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warrant of fitness is implied. The information is provided on an 'as-is' basis. The author and publisher will have neither liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage arising from information contained on this page.
